You may think Christmas is far away - but the festive season is fast approaching, with the first snow of winter spotted in Britain earlier this week.

Parts of the Pennines were spotted covered in the white stuff on Wednesday, October 19.

Daytime temperatures have dropped into single figures, with parts of Great Dun Fell snow-capped, along with parts of the Highlands.

And, while there is no snow on the horizon for Birmingham and the Midlands yet, some forecasters say the UK could be hit with four MONTHS of snow as temperatures plummet towards the end of the year following the much-warmer-than-average summer.

James Madden, from Exacta Weather, said that there could be heavy and persistent snow from November through to February 2017.

“Despite the much warmer than average but unsettled summer and the warm start to autumn, people should not be lulled into a false sense of security,” he told our sister title Glasgow Live .

Snow covered Barr Beacon in 2010

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“Throughout this winter we fully expect some quite potent wintry blasts from as early as November for the northern half of the country, and even the southern half of the country can expect some prolonged wintry weather at times.

“This does not dispel some large temperature swings to milder and potentially stormy weather conditions throughout this winter period.

“But we do expect less stormy weather conditions throughout this winter and in comparison to the last few winter periods.”

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And the Met Office told our sister title The Daily Mirror that this year they are expecting a “fairly normal British winter”, with “no strong bias towards any significant snow event... or particularly cold spell”.

Birmingham has not seen a true white Christmas since the winter of 1981, when up to 15cm of snow lay on the ground in the city on December 25.

There was however snow on Boxing Day two years ago, when a mini-blizzard left a blanket of white during the night of December 26-27 in 2014.

One bookmaker has offered odds of 8/1 for the city to see snow on Christmas Day 2016.